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A New Social Contract, a New Social Dialogue. We Trust That Those Engaged in Shaping Ireland’S Future for the Coming Decades Will Find It of Value

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A New Social Contract, a New Social Dialogue. We Trust That Those Engaged in Shaping Ireland’S Future for the Coming Decades Will Find It of Value The present moment presents an opportunity that must not be missed. If Ireland is to succeed in addressing the challenges identified here, the pathway A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT, DIALOGUE. to doing so must be founded on consensus, must be well-managed, and must be properly evaluated. We need a new Social Contract underpinned by a new Social Dialogue. We must look at the framing of this Social Contract in a national and international context and hear the views of all stakeholders to shape this process. Ireland would greatly benefit from having a social dialogue structure that would engage all sectors at a national level. Social dialogue involving all sectors of society enables the development of mutually acceptable solutions to problems that emerge. This in turn would make it more likely that support for such solutions can be secured when implemented by Government. People who have A New Social Contract, been involved in shaping decisions are far more likely to take responsibility for implementing these decisions. A New Social Dialogue. The chapters presented in this book set out both the rationale and a comprehensive pathway towards A New Social Contract, A New Social Dialogue. We trust that those engaged in shaping Ireland’s future for the coming decades will find it of value. Building A Better Future. Building a Better Future. 2020 ISBN 978-1-907501-26-5 1-3 Burton Hall Road, Sandyford, Dublin 18, D18 A094 Tel: + 353 (0) 1 290 3597 Web: www.socialjustice.ie 9 781907 501265 €15 A New Social Contract, A New Social Dialogue. Building a Better Future. Edited by Brigid Reynolds, s.m. Seán Healy, s.m.a. Colette Bennett Social Justice Ireland xxx i Social Justice Ireland i I.S.B.N.ISBN: 978-1-907501-26-5 No: 978-1-907501-24-1 First Published: November 20192020 Published by: Social Justice Ireland Social Justice Ireland1-3 Burton Hall Road Arena House Sandyford Arena Road Dublin 18 Sandyford D18 A094 Dublin D18 V8P6Ireland Ireland Tel:Telephone: 01-213 0724 01-290 3597 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.socialjustice.ie The work is partly supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Scheme to Support National Organisations and Pobal. PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THIS SERIES 1988 Poverty & Family Income Policy 1989 Poverty & Taxation Policy 1990 Work, Unemployment & Job-creation Policy 1991 Rural Development Policy: What Future for Rural Ireland? 1992 Power, Participation & Exclusion 1993 New Frontiers for Full Citizenship 1994 Towards an Adequate Income Guarantee for All 1995 An Adequate Income Guarantee for All 1996 Progress, Values and Public Policy 1997 Social, Economic and Cultural Rights 1998 Social Policy in Ireland: Principles, Practice & Problems. 1999 Social Partnership in a New Century 2000 Participation and Democracy 2000 Towards a Fuller Future: Developing Social, Economic & Cultural Rights 2002 Choosing a Fairer Future: An Agenda for Social Partnership after the Celtic Tiger. 2003 Ireland & the Future of Europe: Leading the Way to Inclusion? 2004 A fairer tax system for a fairer Ireland 2005 Securing Fairness & Wellbeing in a Land of Plenty. 2006 Social Policy in Ireland: Principles, Practice & Problems. (Revised & Updated) 2007 Values, Catholic Social Thought & Public Policy 2008 Making Choices-Choosing Futures: Ireland at a Crossroads. 2009 Beyond GDP: What is Prosperity and how should it be measured? 2010 The Future of the Welfare State 2011 Sharing Responsibility in Shaping the Future. 2012 Does the European Social Model have a Future? Challenges & Responses 70 Years after the Beveridge Report. 2013 A Future Worth Living For. 2014 Planning & Delivering a Fairer Future. 2015 Measuring Up? Ireland’s progress: past, present and future 2016 Basic Income: Radical Utopia or Practical Solution? 2017 Society Matters: Reconnecting People and the State 2018 From Here to Where? Negotiating a Better and Fairer Future 2019 The Challenges of Success: Addressing Population Growth in Ireland TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION vii 1. Ireland and Europe: the urgent need for a social, economic and ecologically just transformation. 1 Ann Pettifor 2. Four Ways Out of the Post-Covid-19 Period. 11 Philippe Pochet 3. Social dialogue and social contract in a world at fever pitch: what are the chances? 17 Joe Larragy 4. Time for a New Social Contract – Policy Options for a More Equal Society 29 Colette Bennett, Seán Healy, Eamon Murphy and Michelle Murphy 5. Time for a New Social Compact 61 Danny McCoy 6. A New Social Contract – a New Social Dialogue 75 Patricia King, 7. Farming and the Environment − Finding Common Ground 81 Damian McDonald 8. Empowering Communities, Strengthening Decisions 95 Karen Ciesielski 9. A New Social Contract, A New Social Dialogue – A Community And Voluntary Perspective 105 Seán Healy CONTRIBUTORS Colette Bennett is with Social Justice Ireland Karen Ciesielski is CEO of the Irish Environmental Network (IEN) Seán Healy is CEO of Social Justice Ireland Patricia King is General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Joe Larragy is at Maynooth University Danny McCoy is CEO of IBEC Damian McDonald is Director General of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) Ann Pettifor is Director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) Philippe Pochet is General Director of the ETUI (European Trade Union Institute) vi A New Social Contract, A New Social Dialogue. Building a Better Future. INTRODUCTION Ireland has seen some very notable positives in recent years. Economic growth has been exceptional. Unemployment has fallen dramatically. Personal consumption and exports were strong. Population growth has been steady and ensures that Ireland’s dependency ratio is much more positive than most of its peer countries in the EU-15. At the same time, however, these very positive developments have been accompanied by others which call into question Ireland’s social contract between the citizen and the state. The experience of COVID-19 has highlighted major challenges being faced by Irish society. Many of those who were recognised as heroes while Ireland was in lockdown were people in low paid employment whose work was not really appreciated prior to the pandemic. Over time poverty figures for the working poor have shown little movement, reflecting a persistent problem with low earnings. Many working families on low earnings struggle to achieve a basic standard of living. Despite modest improvements in recent years, the scale of poverty in Ireland is still far too high and the reality is that hundreds of thousands of people are living in poverty. Indeed, the latest CSO data shows that without social welfare payments 41.4 per cent of Ireland’s population would be living in poverty, instead of 12.8 per cent. Such an underlying poverty rate suggests a deeply unequal distribution of income – an issue that we, as a country, have persistently failed to address. The latest CSO data on wealth provides a further insight into the distribution of resources and some of the underlying structural components of inequality and disadvantage. Wealth in Ireland is highly concentrated, much more so than income and is linked to age and home ownership. Our failure to effectively address persistently high levels of inequality and deprivation highlight the fundamental failure of a very rich society to make the adjustments required to ensure everybody has the basics required to live life with dignity. The levels of homelessness and insufficient supply of social housing serve as a telling indictment of the failure to address some of Ireland’s major infrastructure deficits. Ireland’s current housing crisis is so severe that it could damage Ireland’s competitiveness. While there are certainly other, more socially worthy, reasons for investing in Ireland’s productive social and economic infrastructure, there is perhaps no clearer or more obvious example of the need for large-scale Introduction vii government investment to maintain Ireland’s medium-to-long-term economic potential, given the prevailing circumstances. In the area of services, of particular significance during the pandemic was the obvious inadequacy of the two-tier healthcare system. While its personnel responded heroically to the challenges presented, there was no hiding from the fact that many vulnerable people were not as well served as their better-off fellow-citizens. Without adequate future planning for the kinds of infrastructure and services we need, it will not be possible to maintain – never mind improve – the current standards of living for all citizens, from children to older people. At a macro-economic level Ireland’s pattern of going from boom to bust to boom to bust has become a serious concern and led people to ask questions about why this pattern has to be repeated over and over again. The present moment presents an opportunity that must not be missed. Which brings us to the point of this publication. If Ireland is to succeed in addressing the challenges identified here, the pathway to doing so must be founded on consensus, must be well-managed, and must be properly evaluated. We need a new Social Contract underpinned by a new Social Dialogue. We must look at the framing of this Social Contract in a national and international context and hear the views of all stakeholders to shape this process. Ireland would greatly benefit from having a social dialogue structure that would engage all sectors at a national level. Social dialogue involving all sectors of society enables the development of mutually acceptable solutions to problems that emerge. This in turn would make it more likely that support for such solutions can be secured when implemented by Government. People who have been involved in shaping decisions are far more likely to take responsibility for implementing these decisions. We need to get beyond growth and markets and recognise that, while they do have a role, they are only part of the solution.
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